1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computer systems and, more particularly, to a method for patching cross-platform software.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most modern software must face the inevitability of program errors, or “bugs”, and of fixing these same bugs. One traditional method is to provide the end user with an entirely new copy of the software in question, in which the offending bugs have been eliminated.
However, this method faces several difficulties. Cost or bandwidth limitations may make it inefficient to recompile, distribute, and install an entirely new piece of software, especially if only a small part of the software needs to be changed. Software providers may not wish to release new versions of software to fix each individual bug, but if end users are made to wait too long between bug fixes, they may become dissatisfied with the product. Alternatively, bug fixes may be provided in new versions of the software, but new versions may also include new behavior or features that break compatibility with the old software.
An alternative approach to fixing bugs is to “patch” the software, which involves replacing only those components of the software that contain bugs, rather than the entire application. The patch process may be simplified if an application is comprised of one or more individual library components, since only those libraries that contain the bug may need to be replaced. Compiling and distributing individual library components may be considerably simpler than compiling and distributing an application.
However, the increased simplicity of patching software may lead to many more revisions of the software, compared to a methodology where the entire application is replaced. Since each individual patch may need to be tested against some or all other patched versions of the application, patching may increase the burden on software providers to track and test their software. This burden may be even further increased if the provider offers multiple versions of the software on multiple platforms.
In addition to fixing bugs, end users may also need to be notified of bugs, and of fixes to bugs. Detection of particularly severe bugs may lead to the provider directly contacting the end user with a bug fix. However, direct contact may not be practical for all bugs, and the software provider may have difficulty contacting all its customers. Alternatively, end users may be required to keep track of the latest bug fixes themselves, but if an end user has multiple pieces of software, each from a different software provider, keeping track of bug fixes may become difficult and/or time-consuming.
One solution to the above problem is to have the computer make automatic checks for bug fixes over the Internet, either through the target software itself or through a software update system built into the operating system. While both these methods are improvements over tracking bug fixes manually, both may also have drawbacks. For example, adding bug fix tracking to the piece of software may increase the complexity of the software to be shipped.
Alternatively, operating system-implemented software updating services may be limited to certain software vendors, may not offer patch-specific updating mechanisms, and are generally limited to one operating system in their applicability. However, some software vendors may wish to simultaneously release patches for multiple versions of the same application on different operating systems, which may be difficult to achieve with multiple operating system-specific software updating services.